Young entrepreneurs convention

If you ask someone how Steve Jobs started Apple, they’re likely to mention a particular Silicon Valley garage, but not the time 12-year-old Steve Jobs worked on an assembly line at Hewlett-Packard as a summer intern. Was Jobs a phenom? Of course. Did he wake up one day, drop out of college, and invent the iPhone? Of course not. The iPhone was released when Jobs was 52, and Jeff Bezos founded Amazon 25 years ago. Even the statistical outliers who started iconic companies in their 20s and early 30s, like Jobs, Gates, and Bezos, hit their stride after years of starts and stops, and many pain points and pivots. The young founder myth Still, the idea of a twentysomething college dropout starting a billion-dollar company overnight persists. The truth is, most successful startup founders gained considerable experience before building a company of their own. A recent study from the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) shows that the average age of high-growth startup founders is … [Read more...] about How working for someone else helped me be a better entrepreneur

“Time for a poll,” I say, standing at the front of the classroom. “How many of you think you’ll go to work in corporate America?” More than a dozen hands shoot up. And then, I ask, “Entrepreneurs? Who is going to start their own business?” One day a week, I step away from a consulting practice working with startups and companies in transition to lead a class in the business school at what U.S. News & World Report has named a Top 25 Innovation University. Despite its relatively small size, Stevens Institute of Technology ranks No. 14 on the list of patents granted to alumni. Its students—electrical and computer engineers, majors in quantitative finance—are, you know, smart. And so in the classroom this day, in answer to my second question, only three or four confident hands rise. Despite the constant stream of blogs lauding Silicon Valley and celebrating young billionaires and glorifying what’s been called “startup … [Read more...] about The 7 greatest impediments to American entrepreneurs

By Ira Boudway Bloomberg Fri., Nov. 16, 2018 Kobe Bryant has a sales meeting. Across the table is a middle-aged man in a blue suit who works at a large convenience store chain. He’s seated in the corner of a makeshift conference room in the Las Vegas Convention Center. Outside are hundreds of suppliers of beef jerky, cigarette lighters, hot dogs, motor oil, potato chips, vape pens, beer and everything else you might expect to find at the annual trade show for the National Association of Convenience Stores. Mom-and-pop vendors display nicotine toothpicks and pickle popsicles down the hall from where Coca-Cola, Conagra, MillerCoors and other mega-corporations have booths as big as houses, with stadium-style video boards and servers passing out free samples. Monster Energy has a dance floor. Hostess has someone in a Twinkie costume. Bryant, in a quarter-zip grey fleece and dark jeans, is there to represent Bodyarmor, a sports-drink startup looking to grab … [Read more...] about Kobe Bryant the entrepreneur wants to sell you a sports drink

Charlotte Hu, provided by Published 1:29 pm CST, Thursday, November 15, 2018 Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade/flickr Healthcare is not an easy field to break into as an entrepreneur. Beyond the operations of business, a grasp on complex science and tech is also needed. This year's spotlighted members of Forbes' 30 under 30 list for healthcare is diverse in both interests and in age. The youngest entrepreneur clocks in at only 18. Business Insider asked these healthcare superstars what advice they would have wanted to hear when they were first starting out. Here's what a few of them told us. Megan Blewett, 29, is an associate at Venrock Venrock Blewett joined healthcare and tech venture firm Venrock firm in 2017, and her areas of focus are biotech and pharmaceutical investments. Prior to joining the firm, she completed her chemistry PhD at The Scripps Research Institute. Blewett is especially intrigued by the opportunity to use new tools like CRISPR for basic … [Read more...] about We asked some of the top young healthcare entrepreneurs in America for their advice — here’s what they said

By Jennifer Wells Business Columnist Thu., Oct. 11, 2018 There was a premature ending to this story, an ending that involved public markets and rounds of financing and men in suits. Or the sense of an ending, to steal from a great novelist. For there was Vicki Saunders, a woman of indomitable spirit who had ridden a comet of an idea, a company designed to foster young brilliance and ignite smart young companies. And then came the flock of suits, the pressure to conform to a corporate playbook women had played no role in writing, the criticisms. You’re too emotional as a leader. You’re not supposed to run a company this way. We don’t want you to be the CEO — we want him to be the CEO. Placing herself back in that moment two decades ago is effortless for Saunders, for the retelling is central to where she is today. “That was a lack-of-leadership moment for me because I didn’t stand up to it,” she says. “I … [Read more...] about She’s helping women change the world — one entrepreneur at a time